Finish

I once started reading the book Getting Things Done but I didn’t finish it. If you think the irony of that statement is lost on me then trust me, it’s not. Finishing things is a lifelong problem for me. I start things and get a great start on them but when they turn plodding and hard, it’s really tough for me to power through. Plus, there’s always some other neat new idea or technology to play with that I could make a lot of progress with quickly before it started to get difficult.

Then there’s just basic fears about success and failure that haunt me. What if I build something and it’s successful but not successful enough. I might build two or three games and have a lot of extra work to do supporting them but not be able to leave my current job. Or, what if I build it and nobody comes? With LOL.com that wasn’t a problem, we knew people would come simply because of the URL it sits on. But people might show up to a beta game, play for five minutes and then leave for good. In fact, I’m sure lots will. If you stop and think about stuff like that you can paralyze yourself enough that you never get anything done on that side project. Instead you go hit your favorite site again to see if anybody posted something new or watch a cool TV show you like, etc.

With all that said, here’s what I’ve learned over the years:

• Build something you are truly interested in. Don’t build something just because there’s an empty niche somewhere and you realize you have the skills necessary to fill it. I have actually done that. I built a website because there wasn’t a site like it and I thought people would need it, then I realized I had zero interest in maintaining that site.
• If you do care about it, never ever quit. You may think that some other site has you beat completely, but you may be able to just outlast them. The amateur ones are run by people who thought it would be cool, enjoy it for a while, and then don’t want anything to do with it again. It’s the online equivalent of buying a boat. The commercial ones are often created by people with no great love of the topic (see my point above) and they often seem to run out of money.
• Know why you are doing something. Don’t do stuff just because you think it would be cool. I tried podcasting and it was a mistake. I was OK at it, god knows I’m as opinionated as hell, but I didn’t have any reason to do it. There wasn’t anything I was promoting or selling and there was no concentrated focus for the show. If I were to do it today there’s no question but that it would be a show about PBBGs and I could actually make some sense out of it by promoting them, reviewing them, and plugging the ones I work on. So maybe I’ll do it again some day, but before I do, I’ll know why I’m doing it.
• Only work on one new project at a time. You can still keep blogging, you can still go back and make improvements to an existing project while you work on the new one. But don’t start another new project while you’re working on the current one. I think it’s OK to think about it and make some notes for your next project, but don’t let it side track you. And definitely don’t start building anything for it until you’ve reached a usable state for your current project.
• Break it down, break it down. This is one thing I did learn from what I read in Getting Things Done. Often my to-do lists read like this: “Build Operation To Steal Secrets From An Opponent’s Lair”. OK, that’s something Big Villain needs alright but how long is that going to take? How big is it? It’s not really a to-do item at all, it’s really more of a project in itself and it needs to be broken down into a series of smaller to-do items that will each take an hour or less to accomplish. I actually shoot for smaller items that I think can be done in 15 minutes. Then I am more likely to do one “real quick” when I think about it. Often I find I’ve done two or three and without realizing it I’ve made some real progress.

Learn from the many mistakes I’ve made and you will actually get your projects to the finish line. I may be crawling along with Big Villain right now, but “slow and steady wins the race”.